Showing posts with label Dubai. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Dubai. Show all posts

June 21, 2014

Review: Thanksgiving Tea at Burj Al Arab

Last year, we spent Thanksgiving in Dubai.  After a great few days in Istanbul, we flew overnight to Dubai and checked into the Grosvenor House.  We spent our first day there just relaxing on the beach and exploring the area (the Marina) where our hotel was located.

On Thanksgiving Day, we grabbed a cab to Burj Al Arab for our tea.  I have wanted to visit the hotel for a really long time.  It's the world's only "7 star hotel" and was so expensive, they actually don't know how much it cost.  Since staying there would cost $1,300/night, I figured having Thanksgiving tea would be a more cost effective option.


It was easy to get a reservation.  I emailed the hotel a few months in advance with our request (date, time, gluten allergy, etc...) and they emailed back within a few hours to confirm.  I did have to provide a credit card to secure the booking and they confirmed our reservation and provided the dress code once receiving my credit card information.

January 5, 2014

2013 Year in Review - Hotels

I spent some time over the holidays compiling a few stats from 2013.  We stayed in some awesome hotels (and had some great flights) all over the world.  There was less business and more personal travel  I ended the year with 55 total nights across Starwood, Hyatt, Hilton, and IHG.  About 8 of the nights were business travel and I earned 10 total "night credits" with my Starwood American Express credit cards.  I closed out the year with four "mattress runs" to re-qualify for Starwood Platinum for 2014.

The four incremental stays brought me to 25 nights and cost about $250.  I'll have more on on the value of Starwood Platinum in a future post but for me...the combination of the renewal gift, free internet, upgrades, and free breakfast during each stay for the next 14 months far outweighs the $250 spent to re-qualify at the end of this year.

Here are a few of the highlights and pictures from 2013: